China's Space Program News Thread

[Temstar]

The Ceres-1 Yao-3 rocket from the private launch company

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successfully placed three satellites –– Donghai-1 (东海一号) and Tailing-1 (泰景一号) 01 and 02 –– into their respective orbits. The Taijing-1 01 and 02 satellites are mainly used for commercial remote sensing, and Donghai-1 satellite will be used to verify the multi-mode remote sensing detection technology of micro polarized light cameras.

This launch is the third flight of the Ceres-1 launch vehicle.

Woah shit, that's 3 for 3 for Galactic Energy. Interestingly this Cere-1 is all white unlike the two black ones.

 

[by78]

Interestingly this Cere-1 is all white unlike the two black ones.

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, and the payload fairing has been enlarged as well.

 

[Temstar]

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, and the payload fairing has been enlarged as well.

I kind of dig the all black rocket look. I saw a video explaining that all solid fuel rockets can be black instead of white because they don't really care about sitting in the sun and heating up, but I guess it's probably not true given this change.

 

[by78]

The Jielong-3 solid rocket has entered engineering stage. It will become the largest solid rocket in China and certainly the largest to be launched from sea.

Diameter: 2.64m
Weight: 140t
Fairing Diameter: 3.35m
Can carry 1.5t to SSO

An update on the rocket. Static fairing separation test has been completed successfully, which marks the end of all ground tests. The engineering stage is now complete, and preparations for the first flight will now commence.

https://imgur.com/a/jTbMIEN

 

[AF-1]

Is Jielong-3 (SD-3) also designated as CZ-11A?

What happens with SD-2, it had maiden launch already or there are plans for that to happen soon?

Also SD-1, debut flight occurred back in 2019 and since then no more launches for 3 years. Is it still operational, any plans for future launches? Or its been retired due to harsh competition in that segment?

 

[by78]

Another day, another launch. Long March 6 Yao-1 successfully launched 16 satellites, including Jilin-1 Gaofen 03D09 and Yunyao-1 04-08. This mission is the 432nd flight of the Long March series of launch vehicles.

Supplemental high-resolution images.

 

[taxiya]

Is Jielong-3 (SD-3) also designated as CZ-11A?

What happens with SD-2, it had maiden launch already or there are plans for that to happen soon?

Also SD-1, debut flight occurred back in 2019 and since then no more launches for 3 years. Is it still operational, any plans for future launches? Or its been retired due to harsh competition in that segment?

I was wondering about CZ-11 too. Here is what I think. SD-2 is the same in dimension and payload by the same developer CALT (CASC 1st academy) as CZ-11. So SD-2 is CZ-11 renamed. From now on, all solid launchers from CALT will be SD series instead of CZ. So SD-2 has had its maiden flight in the name of CZ-11.

 

[taxiya]

I kind of dig the all black rocket look. I saw a video explaining that all solid fuel rockets can be black instead of white because they don't really care about sitting in the sun and heating up, but I guess it's probably not true given this change.

I am surprised that someone could actually come up with that explanation.

 

[Helius]

Pretty cool seeing the solar panels on both modules in active modes, esp. the spinning ones on Wentian -

 

[by78]

A photo of the Chinese space station taken by an amateur astronomer.